Train vs. driving a car in Spain

Linda, we just got back from our Christmas trip to Portugal, and found the roads/freeways to be fantastic. Our friends, who were with us, said that Spain was the same. Our reccomendation is to rent a car. It will be cheaper and more convenient (for 19 days our 4 door diesel wagon only cost $417 E)

DO NOT drive without a GPS. Either rent one with your car, or buy one here before you go. I bought a new Tom Tom 920, and we never used our maps. We could navigate to any spot we wanted without a problem; in the middle of the city or out in the country.

Note that some expressways change tolls (by the hour!),but it will still be cheaper to rent a car than pay for all of the public trans...especially for two people. Rent your car here in the states from a reputable company like Autoeurope.com

Pick up a RS Spain book......all of his info is right on the money. Also carry a Lonely Planet guidebook; their restaurant picks are generally better than Rick's, and they have good lodging info.

We never rode a train in Spain, but we drove many miles by auto. The roads are much faster than other parts of Europe and I don't remember toll roads there.

Reading the highway signs will be a challenge. Buy a map when you get to Spain....not here. Research the mileage you plan to drive each day so you can reach your destination before dark. Driving at night presents a greater challenge.

Avoid driving in the central districts of larger towns by staying in a suburb and riding public transportation to your points of interest.

Keep your tank full because finding service stations which take credit cards is not always easy.

Roads in Spain are generally excellent, so you shouldn't have any trouble driving. A couple of suggestions. 1) Check very carefully for parking at your accommodations in the big cities like Madrid..it can be tough to find, so ask first...or, as suggested earlier, stay closer to the outskirts and commute in by metro or rail. 2) When visiting Segovia from Madrid, leave the car behind and take the train or bus. 3) Some of the older highways have very short on-ramps, many with a stop sign at the end! That means you have to "goose" it to fit into traffic. 4) From Sevilla to Malaga, I assume you'll be going thru Ronda (if not, you should be!:)) If so, be careful of the road from Ronda to Malaga...it twists a lot, and it is very slow driving, and very draining if you're not used to it. You might want to compare prices with carjet.co.uk, a brokerage we've used several times with great success. Their rates include all CDW!

Trains are fast and comfortable, but very expensive. Even with a railpass there are costly reservation fees, etc. And you miss all the great interactions you get by driving the backroads and stopping wherever. The small towns give you an authentic experience, rather than being funneled into tourist destinations. The roads and signage are terrific, especially if you have rudimentary Spanish (except in Barcelona where they use Catalan- confusing). I can't imagine you'd need a GPS, but have a good map for backroads or city (park in Barcelona and Madrid- use the bus/metro). Don't miss Toledo.

Only recently did Spain enact speed limits, so highway traffic is fast, but I've seen few accidents.
Two women may get some flirtatious looks, but Spain is a very safe country with almost no violent crime. I've been 5 times and never had any negatives. You will love Spain and the generous people with their wry humor their encouragement of your attempts at Spanish. Enjoy your trip - I'm jealous.

The roads in Spain are excellent. Last year we drove all over southern spain without a problem. We did not run into any toll roads.

All though driving in Madrid was insane. We did not even attempt to go inside the ring road with the car, instead taking it straight to the airport and taking a cab downtown.

Based upon your itenerary, I think you should look into flying some of these legs. Barcelona is pretty far from all of these other locales. You can fly cheaply and easily in Spain on Air Europa. It isn't much more expensive than a train ride, but much faster (Barcelona-Sevilla is an 8 hour train and it is a 1.5 hour flight)

The train system in Spain is not as well developed or as extensive as other parts of Europe. But a hidden gem is the bus system. A number of years ago a train strike forced us to use buses and we were delighted with the service and price. Obviously the bus is not adequate for long trips but was great for day trips and distances of less than two to four hours. We used the bus from Madrid to Segorvia, to Toledo, etc. The other advantage to the buses is that the terminal is always in the center of town where most of the train stations are further from the town center.

We've done a similar trip both ways but actually preferred the train. With the difficulty of driving in larger cities (Madrid, for example) and difficulty of driving and finding parking spaces in smaller cities (i.e. Granada) driving can be frustrating at times. We drove in northern Spain last March and found the cost of toll roads and parking ($20. US dollars per day in San Sebastian) to be expensive.